The pollination of plants mediated by animals is an important ecosystem service as most flowering plants need the service of pollinators for sexual reproduction and seed set.  The introduction of exotic pollinator species may disrupt pollination of local plants species through negative effects on native pollinators or through negative pollination effects on native plants species.  Guaiacum sanctum (locally known as “Guayacán Blanco”) is a slow growing but important timber tree species of the dry forests in the neotropics. It is considered a threatened species and is listed in Appendix II of CITES. We performed observations to document pollination interactions of G. sanctum with native and exotic insect pollinators in two different dry forest sites that differ in the presence (Guánica Dry Forest) and absence of exotic Africanized Honeybees (Mona Island Reserve).

Results/Conclusions

We found the diversity of insect pollinators was higher in Mona island (15 species) than in Guánica (only Africanized honeybees were recorded).  However, when we compare visitation rates to flowers by these pollinators, Guanica trees exhibited higher visitation rates than trees in Mona Island.  Results show clear differences in pollinator communities between these two Guaicum populations and emphasize the need to study how these differences may translate into differences in the quality and quantity of pollination of this threatened tree species